The River of Midnight's Dreaming
by ncfan
Summary: It's for her sake that he's ventured into the unknown, it is she that leaves him raw and strangely unafraid, and it is her ghost that haunts him in the end. AU. Angst. Kakashi x Yugito. Pre-series. Multichapter.
1. Prologue

Hello! Here is the prologue of _The River of Midnight's Dreaming. _This story, coincidentally, has absolutely no connection to my oneshot _Waking Sunset_; sorry to disappoint anyone who thought it was connected. Some of the chapters, such as this one, will be very short; others may be longer.

Feedback would be much appreciated.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_Is _all _that we see or seem  
But a dream within a dream?_

—_A Dream Within a Dream _by Edgar Allan Poe

* * *

_Hurry… Hurry… Obito's whispering for him to hurry, a once-light voice made eerie and crumpled like bed sheets after a long night by the passage of time. Hurry, hurry, hurry towards the light, hurry towards the end, hurry towards your own doom._

_Now, Obito is whispering Hurry, Hurry, but it's to Rin, and he's under a rock. She is sniffling, holding back tears, and Obito grows more insistent, blood slurring his speech. Water rushes in Kakashi's ears._

_Hurry, hurry. Hurry, Rin. Hurry, Kakashi._

_All Kakashi can do is stand there, gaping in the growing darkness, dead stomach roiling with lead._

_Obito looks at him, Obito whispers, and Obito—_

_Oh, _God, _Obito._

_Hurry… Hurry. Hurry it up, Kakashi. We haven't got all night._

Kakashi wakes up, breathing hard, to the sight of his plain, plaster ceiling, to the sound of the air conditioning duct flipping on with a jolt.

That, and nothing more.


	2. Chapter One

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_I walk dry on your kingdom's border  
Exiled to no good_

—_Full Fathom Five_ by Sylvia Plath

* * *

"You wanted to speak with me, Hokage-sama?" Long gone are the days when Kakashi would let himself in to the Hokage's sunlit office by means of Shunsin. Those days are over, gone with the ANBU career he so recently left behind. Now, he walks up the halls and winding stairways, rapping sharply on the door and waiting to be allowed in. Hokage-sama greets him genially; he bows stiffly at the waist.

In the ten years since he was forced by unfortunate circumstance to take back the position of Sandaime Hokage, the Sandaime has aged visibly and badly. His once dark hair is hoary and gray, the lines and pits grown to become cracks and craters. He tries to smile, and when he does, an ugly mask of wrinkled skin forms where Sarutobi Hiruzen's smiling face should have been.

The old man smiles warmly at Kakashi, but his eyes are dark as polished stone and merely reflect the light, rather than letting light in. "I see you got my summons, Kakashi."

Yes, Kakashi had gotten his summon. A dog-masked ANBU agent, tapping on his window and balancing precariously on the gutter. He speaks in low, flat tones, animosity barely managing not the seep through the porcelain white of his mask. Barely contained disdain for the one who left the ranks.

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Kakashi's visible eye crinkles up in a smile, but it can not fail to hide how tired he is. He still hasn't acclimated to the less rigorous schedule of a non-ANBU jonin, and the long hours of the night that should be spent sleeping are instead spent lying awake, staring at the ceiling, trying to forget the muscle memory that sent him flying over rooftops not long ago.

Sarutobi gets right into it, the golden sunlight slanting across the smooth surface of his desk, strangely devoid of paperwork. "Kakashi, how much do you know about the current situation in Kumogakure?"

"Not much."

Just information heard over the radio, gleaned from listening in on the conversations of patrons in restaurants and bars. The rumor going is that the Yondaime Raikage has been deposed and assassinated, and that the two jinchuuriki of Kumo have either been imprisoned or killed in the aftermath.

Nothing definitive, in the way of facts. Kumo's become a black hole as far as intelligence goes; nin go in, nin _don't_ come out, and their messenger birds never make it back to the village. All just rumors and stories. None of it provably true.

The elderly Hokage grimaces. "Allow me to enlighten you. The stories you have doubtless heard about the Yondaime Raikage having been assassinated are, as it grieves me to say it, perfectly true."

_Of course it grieves him, _Kakashi thinks dully. Knowing that a Raikage far younger than him, still in the prime of his formidable combative abilities, can be assassinated by the shinobi of his village must be a somewhat frightening thought to Sarutobi. If not frightening, then at least enough to jolt him out of any complacency that old age and experience has given him.

"Kumogakure is in total disarray. The whole infrastructure of the village is in danger of collapsing."

A spark of curiosity spurs Kakashi to speak. "Hokage-sama, what of the two jinchuuriki? I'd heard rumors that they have been killed."

"That is an…interesting matter. In Kumogakure, the treatment jinchuuriki receive is better than what young Naruto here faces; they are valued as skilled warriors by their comrades, if still at times ostracized out of fear." A look of chagrin passes over both men's faces. "However, both of the hosts of Kumogakure are very much the Yondaime's men, and as such, the shinobi who deposed the Raikage saw the need to dispose of them.

"The jinchuuriki of the Hachibi no Kyogyuu, Yotsuki Kirabi the Yondaime's younger brother escaped Kumogakure, easily. I doubt we'll be hearing from him again; from what the reports state, when Yotsuki Kirabi doesn't want to be found, he _won't _be found."

"And the other?"

Sarutobi leans back in his chair, face becoming something utterly unreadable. "That is a more…complicated matter. The jinchuuriki of the Nibi no Nekomata, Nii Yugito, was caught by some of the shinobi of her village, and her chakra was sealed, as I understand it, by means of an external seal." A grim, thin-lipped smile crosses Sarutobi's face. "But even with her chakra sealed, Nii was far from helpless. Nii Yugito has received ANBU training; from that, I'm sure you know what her capabilities are, even with no chakra to fall back on. She killed over a dozen shinobi using nothing but a katana and a packet of senbon.

"Reports state that Nii has taken refuge in the dark forests in the southwest of Tsuchi no Kuni since fleeing Kaminari no Kuni."

Imperceptibly, Kakashi flinches. The forests in the southwest of Tsuchi no Kuni are, he has experience to know, a wild, desolate area. The trees are so thickly dense that it can appear as dusk when the sun is noon-high. The forest itself is dreadfully quiet except for when wolves, scrawny creatures with terrible, hungry amber eyes, are on the prowl, usually for some hapless hare or deer, but occasionally for the weary traveler as well. It is also a favored hideout of missing nin and civilian outlaws.

The Sandaime's dark eyes flicker and become flat and unknowable, a Hokage's eyes. "This, Kakashi, is where you come in.

"I want you to find Nii, and bring her back."


	3. Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_That motley drama—oh, be sure  
It shall not be forgot!_

—_The Conqueror Worm_ by Edgar Allan Poe

* * *

Kakashi's black eye is painted with shock unhidden. "You want me to do _what_?" All sense of propriety has been abruptly forgotten.

Fortunately for Kakashi, Sarutobi chooses to forgive this indiscretion, wincing in such a way that is not unsympathetic. "I don't blame you for being reluctant, Kakashi, but Nii Yugito's presence in Konohagakure would be a huge asset to the village, militarily and politically."

The words strike a sharp note, and Kakashi stares down at the Sandaime, who is gazing discontentedly out of the huge windows in his office. "I—" Kakashi tries to word the sentence carefully "—hear the voice of Shimura Danzo behind all of this."

Immediately, the air starts to crackle, unbearably tense and charged.

Danzo, as a warmonger, isn't particularly well-loved among the jonin population of Konoha, most of whom possess absolutely no desire to fight another continental war, having vivid memories of the _last_ war in which they fought. However, being unloved does not change the fact that Danzo has political clout amongst the upper echelons of Konoha society that would make the Fire Daimyo jealous. It isn't that farfetched to assume that he could force the Hokage into assuming a certain position.

"Yes, this was Danzo's idea. However, for once, my old friend—" Sarutobi's voice drips mordant irony at the term "old friend" "—and I are of one accord. If Nii Yugito can be persuaded to fight for Konoha and the seal suppressing her chakra can be removed, she will practically double the strength of our military by herself."

There is in Kakashi an involuntary spark of pity for the woman known as Nii Yugito, whom he has never met. Her fate is being decided far from the place where she is now, in a sunlit office that she has never seen, by an old man whom she has never met and has no reason to trust.

"She is to be pressed into military service here?" Kakashi asks, surprising himself with a soft tone.

Sarutobi shakes his head violently. "Not pressed. I'm not giving you orders to _force_ Nii here; the impression I've gotten is that it would be more than your life's worth to try to force her to go somewhere she doesn't want to go. When you find her, tell her the truth. That's she's being offered sanctuary here, in return for pledging loyalty to Konohagakure."

Kakashi nods; somehow, this makes him feel a little better. "I understand, Hokage-sama." He neglects to mention that part of the reason he _left_ ANBU in the first place was because he was getting a little tired of being put on missions of such a deadly nature so frequently. He's sure Sarutobi knows.

Dark eyes survey him in an almost chiding way. "Make sure not to use your ninken. Where you're going, they'll attract far too much attention."

It occurs to Kakashi to protest, but the words never form on his lips. Without ninken, it could take him weeks to find Nii. Then again, Sarutobi knows this too. "Of course, Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi entwines the fingers of his hands, brow furrowing. His normal congenial nature has long since abandoned him. "Good," he remarks unsmilingly. "When can you leave?"

"Within the hour."

"Then you're free to go." A faint heaviness crosses the old man's face like a breathless sigh. "Good luck, Kakashi."

Once he stands outside the door and Sandaime-sama can no longer see the reactions of his face, Kakashi sighs and wonders why he capitulated so easily.

The answer is plain.

The dogma of total obedience to the Hokage. Something that, even with his resignation from the ANBU, Kakashi has not forgotten.

And something that Sarutobi, as in all things, hasn't forgotten either.


	4. Chapter Three

Obviously, this chapter is very short, but I promise I'll have the next installment up in a day or so.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

"_Ride, boldly ride,"  
__The shade replied—  
_"_If you seek for El Dorado!"_

—_El Dorado_ by Edgar Allan Poe

* * *

The tangled mass of forest stretches out gnarled branches of pine trees like claws and talons, beckoning onwards. Before Kakashi stands a mass of ancient darkness; the forests of the southwest of Tsuchi no Kuni are probably the oldest on the continent, as that country, having never evolved far beyond its nomadic roots, built only one great city, Iwagakure, and carved it out of stone. They have never had much use for deforestation as a result.

The sunlight above Kakashi is gray and dull, hidden by the twin layers of fog that often blankets Tsuchi no Kuni, it being such a rainy country, but he knows he's going to miss it once he's entered the confines of the forest beyond. No light penetrates that canopy of pine needles.

Kakashi sighs.

His ninken would be a huge help on this mission, and he knows that Pakkun has been looking forward to having such a mission once again. A mission that could take weeks could be cut down to mere hours.

But Sarutobi's right. The ninken will without a doubt draw the attention of any missing nin, and Nii as well. If she becomes aware of the presence of ninken in the forest she's taken refuge in, there is no doubt that she will mistake their presence as tracker hounds from Kumo. That's the last thing Kakashi needs.

If Nii's even here at all. Leaf intelligence has been wrong in the past.

Ah, well. Even if it is a fool's errand, it will be a distraction from the empty hours that have filled up his life since his resignation from ANBU.

At any rate, it's just a feeling, but Kakashi is fairly certain, that Nii is here.


	5. Chapter Four

Two words: Enter Yugito.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_There is no absolute evil in the world: evil is relative.  
Recognize this fact._

—_The Relativity of Evil _by Rumi

* * *

If he had thought that his retreat into the dark forest would be enough to banish his old ghosts, then Kakashi has discovered himself to be sorely mistaken. Obito follows him here, following the phantom trail of his old Sharingan eye.

Kakashi has long since lost track of time. He has no idea how long he's been in the forest, searching for one who might not be there or might not even still be alive; he wishes he'd bothered to ask Sarutobi if he knows what Nii Yugito looks like. Kakashi thinks he might be able to tell day from night. Day is when the darkness is not impenetrable and is merely grayish gloom. High noon is when the veil of mist finally disappears from the deeply forested foothills. In the foothills of the mountain range of Tsuchi no Kuni, day is when Kakashi can see in front of his face.

As of right now, Kakashi sees a world laden in shadow, trapped between day and night. It is twilight where there is still sun.

Sleep is a miasma of unease and disjointed, disturbing images. Just Obito whispering into his head, now even when he's awake, because with the confusion between day and night, Kakashi's sleeping patterns have been thrown off, and consciousness and slumber are starting to confuse themselves.

_Come on, Kakashi. You've got to hurry._

"Why do I have to hurry, Obito?" he addresses the shadow out loud. Obito, Kakashi knows, is long-dead, and no longer exists anywhere but in the memories of those who knew him, and in Kakashi's slightly deluded mind.

_You gotta hurry because it's important. It's always important, Kakashi. I know you've picked up my habit of being late to everything, but you _have_ to hurry up._

Sleep comes at a high price, and Kakashi wakes up with a headache and a strained dizziness, and he finds himself snapping his head round, almost believing that he'll see Obito emerge out of the darkness, grinning and waving at him, offering up some utterly insane excuse for being late again.

And telling Kakashi to hurry, of course. It's about all Obito ever does anymore.

Instead, what Kakashi gets is a flash of silver.

He hears the musical breath of wind before he ever sees the dim gleam of metal—a sword blade, being drawn behind him with startling alacrity. Out of instinct, Kakashi dodges the long, keen blade, flashing out of darkness, ducking out of the way just in time. The sword that would have penetrated his back and connected with his spine instead slices the cool, moist air.

Evidently, someone has issues with Kakashi being in the forest.

Kakashi whirls around, kunai in hand, and just barely makes eye contact with the wary and desperate eyes of a cornered cat and catches sight of swishes of pale hair before the flash of a katana extends out of darkness again.


	6. Chapter Five

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_Know though the secret of a spirit  
Bow'd from its wild pride into shame._

—_Tamerlane _by Edgar Allan Poe

* * *

Stab. Slash. Swipe. Swing. _The girl's good, whoever she is, _Kakashi thinks, as he puts the kunai away and draws a tanto to parry the blows his assailant is leveling at him with her thin, lightweight katana. In the time it takes Kakashi to draw his tanto, the girl has engaged in a deadly slice at the belly that Kakashi barely manages to dodge. _Fast, too, _he admits ruefully; if the blonde girl's blow had made its mark, she would have succeeded in gutting him.

It's dark, and Kakashi has difficulty following the vision of her quick, economic movements. Pulling up his hitai-ate and using the Sharingan would be so much easier, but it will also prove to be a drain on his chakra and drawn unwanted attention to him. That and the fact that using the Sharingan on a girl with no chakra, even if she is well-versed with a sword, is simply egregious overkill at its worst.

Wait.

Something's wrong.

In a sharp, swift movement, Kakashi rips the katana from the girl's grasp and kicks her in the stomach, sending her tumbling down the dip of a steep hill. Kakashi tosses the sword away so she can't make any further use of it. This gives him time to think.

The girl has no chakra at all. None whatsoever, and that's impossible, Kakashi knows, even in civilians; all life forms carry chakra, even if only in tiny amounts that remain completely inaccessible. In this girl, there's nothing. No chakra, neither in the large amount of a nin or the diminished quantities of a civilian. She seems to be a black hole; there is nothing there.

Kakashi knows of only one thing that can suppress chakra to the point that it is utterly undetectable: a chakra seal, and a formidable one too.

Second, there's an argument that Kakashi would like to make against the girl being a civilian: She managed to sneak up on him and catch him almost completely unawares. No civilian is capable of doing that to an ANBU. In fact, few _shinobi_ are capable of doing that to an ANBU.

Kakashi starts to get a horrible, sneaking suspicion.

The girl is running back up the hill, feet hitting a blanket of wet, moldering leaves only lightly, her eyes narrowed in grim determination. The look in her eyes simply confirms Kakashi's suspicions; she is no civilian. This has to end, and soon. Kakashi prefers not to kill when it's not necessary, and if she's who he suspects he is, then killing her would be _really_ bad for business.

She is near him now, but in an instant, her katana is striking cool, moist air and Kakashi is behind her, hands running through the symbols of a jutsu.

There is a jutsu, taught to Konoha ANBU who have mastered the Lightning affinity, that will overload the body of the one it's being performed on enough to cause them to fall unconscious, without (if administered correctly) causing death or serious injury. It's usually used to bring in live prisoners, and Kakashi is a master of this jutsu.

First, there is a whisper of familiar words.

Second, there comes a momentary, blinding nimbus of light.

Finally, there is a satisfying, muffled thud as the girl drops where she stands, out cold and paralyzed.

Kakashi can't restrain a small feeling of triumph, despite knowing that it was hardly any victory considering how desperately outclassed the girl was.

In the gloomy, greenish-gray half-darkness, Kakashi can see the beginning of a black mark on the girl's jaw, partially obscured by strands of hair falling from her bandage-wrapped ponytail, as he returns from retrieving her sword.

He rams the sword into the soft ground and stoops to confirm the last of his suspicions. Brushing back strands of silver blonde hair, Kakashi sees, just below her left ear, a charcoal-black chakra seal. Diamond-shaped and hollow with three horizontal slash marks inside, Kakashi recognizes it as a powerful Kumogakure chakra seal.

A girl with the swordsmanship skills of a Kumo nin, and the ability to sneak up on a seasoned ANBU, has had her chakra sealed and carries a katana with the insignia of Kumogakure on its hilt.

Kakashi sighs heavily, and stares down at the woman unconscious at his feet. She has no idea of what has plunged her life into far more chaos than she ever could have imagined.

So this is Nii Yugito of Kumogakure.

She's younger than he thought she would be.


	7. Chapter Six

Yeah, Yeah. I know I'm screwing around with Yugito's age, but I think it makes for a more interesting dynamic to have this big age gap between her and Kakashi.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_A sad self-knowledge withering fell  
On the beauty of Uriel_

—_Uriel _by Ralph Waldo Emerson_  
_

* * *

The darkness has descended to the extent that Kakashi has found the need to light a fire by the time he hears a soft groaning that heralds his young…_guest_ waking up from the incapacitating technique Kakashi used on her some hours before. Good. That sort of thing was only supposed to last for about fifteen minutes anyway; he has no idea why it left Yugito unconscious for so long.

She is lying on her side on the leafy carpet of the ground, curled up as she groans and lifts her head, raising a hand to rub her forehead. Then, Kakashi suspects in surprise that she can move her hands at all, Yugito sits straight up, staring directly at Kakashi with eyes growing wide. In that moment, she looks very young, and Kakashi realizes that he has overestimated her age. He assumed her to be around eighteen or nineteen from her height, but realizes that she could be as young as fifteen.

"What?" Yugito asks, slightly breathless. "No restraints? I'm surprised; normally when someone has captured another nin, they would want to be careful that their quarry doesn't escape." Her lip curls in the ironic twist of a smile, a mockery of familiarity. "You must be quite confident in your abilities, whoever you are."

Kakashi chooses to ignore her probative comments, knowing that she's trying to wheedle information out of him. Classic kunoichi trick. "You're Nii Yugito from Kumogakure, aren't you?"

She nods and hugs her knees to her chest in a movement that is strangely childlike and, again, bespeaks more the mindset of a child than an adult. "Yes." Her eyes flick to his hitai-ate. "And you're a Leaf nin. Funny; I figured that the guy who came to kill me would be from Kumo."

At this, Kakashi's eyebrows rise (_So _that's _what this was about_), though he can not say that he's surprised. "I'm not here to kill you, Nii-san."

Her eyes cloud for a moment, and when Yugito leans forward slightly, Kakashi watches, open-mouthed, as blackness in eyes recede to reveal blue irises washed to silver in the firelight. Her pupils contract and expand likes those of a cat. "I'm sorry to disappoint you," the kunoichi murmurs, "if I can't believe you."

"Don't you think that if I wanted you dead, you'd already _be _dead?"

Yugito only shrugs. "I don't know. Some people like to take their time." Almost absently, but not quite, she draws her tongue across dry lips, and Kakashi is again unsure of her age, seeing her flicker to a cynical woman. "Iwa in particular is known for their cruelty towards captive. And as I understand it, Konoha is hardly kind to prisoners, especially during wartime."

Kakashi bites back a sigh. He hopes this conversation won't turn into an indictment of Konohagakure's policies, as so many of his conversations with nin from other lands tend to do. "I think you can rest assured, Nii-san, that I will neither torture you nor kill you. That's not what I'm here for."

Blue eyes grow blank again, and to Kakashi, it almost looks like she's listening to someone else speak. Come to think of it, that's exactly what it looks like; he eyes Yugito warily. Finally, she nods. "Okay. So—" she purses her lips and eyes Kakashi appraisingly "—what does the high and mighty Konohagakure want with me?"

The fire crackles momentarily, popping out sparks onto the wet leaves around it. "The Sandaime Hokage would like to know if you would be interested in changing your allegiances."

Fiddling with the black cuff of her sleeve, which is starting, ever so slightly, to unravel, Yugito doesn't look up as she answers. "Oh, really? That's very interesting," she adds in a tone that indicates that she is anything but, "but why should I care?"

Her notable indifference to everything is starting to get just a little irritating. "Because," Kakashi explains in the all-too-patient one would use with a slow or mulish child, "Kumo has branded you a missing nin. You have a price on your head, and I've yet to meet a shinobi who actually _wants_ to integrate into the civilian population of a foreign nation."

"Well you've just met one. I look enough like a Tsuchi no Kuni native—" and she's right; Yugito has the fair hair, pale eyes and tall height that often characterizes Tsuchi no Kuni inhabitants "—that I could probably pull it off, if not for my eyes, and the accent," Yugito admits ruefully, smiling wistfully as she acknowledges her thick Kaminari no Kuni accent. "I could just write the chakra seal off as a tattoo; no one would ever be the wiser."

The chakra seal. The young girl sitting opposite Kakashi has brushed her stray hairs back into her ponytail, so the seal is highly visible, contrasting against her pale, translucent skin. It's presence, black and livid, gives Kakashi some leeway. Hokage-sama said not to force Yugito to come to Konoha, but that doesn't mean Kakashi can't find something that would make her want to come. "About the chakra seal."

"Yes?"

"I know someone who could remove it."

"Who?" Suddenly, she is intent and alert, all ears to Kakashi's offhand comment, and he silently congratulates himself.

"That's not important. If you come back to Konoha, I can arrange to get that seal removed. As eager as you claim to be to integrate with the civilian populace here and simply vanish from memory, the fact that your chakra's been sealed must rankle. If you didn't want to stay, then I doubt that anyone could stop you from leaving after the seal was removed."

Again, Yugito's eyes grow glazed and glassy, and Kakashi feels like he's the odd-man out in a three way conversation. "Okay. That sounds reasonable." Her thin mouth twists bitterly, as in an undertone she adds, "It's not like I have a choice, anyway."

Kakashi frowns and tilts his head. "Hokage-sama isn't forcing you to come back with me; you don't have to—"

A sharp laugh, cold and false, hits the air. "Oh, please. You actually believe that?" Now she sounds as old, if not older, than Kakashi himself. "Or did your Hokage simply choose not to inform you of the facts of life?"

When she doesn't receive any answer, Yugito goes on, wrecking whatever cordiality was building between them. "You are simply the messenger that comes to tell me that the Hokage wants _another _jinchuuriki to add to his arsenal." Apparently, she knows about Naruto. "You are the first wave, the one who actually has a choice as to whether or not he brings back the desired quarry.

"If you return empty-handed, your Hokage will no doubt ask you where you found me. And when you tell him, about three nights after that, give or take a day, I will awaken from my rest to find at least three Konoha jonin, or maybe even ANBU, standing over me to take me back to Konoha by force.

"From there, I will be given my last choice. Either join Konoha willingly or be given over to Konoha's ROOT—we know everything about you people," Yugito adds with a slightly smug smile," who will proceed to "re-educate" me, and essentially brainwash and succeed in doing what the Raikage was never willing to do: create a mindless, blank slate of a soldier who is loyal to Konoha alone, and can not ever remember a time when she had an identity other than that of drone."

Kakashi stares at her, open-mouthed; he can't remember the last time someone made him gape so often. He clamps his mouth shut, feeling slightly sick, as he realizes that Yugito is probably right. There is nothing he can find the words to say.

Yugito, for her part, lets the fire roll red shadows over the fine bones of her face as she smiles bleakly, her voice just as quiet as ever, an ANBU's voice, Kakashi knows. "So yes, Leaf nin, I will come with you. I'd rather walk into Hell willingly than be dragged there by force.

"And you can rest assured, Leaf nin, that I will come with you, knowing that I never really had any choice at all."


	8. Chapter Seven

Okay, I finally worked up the motivation to write up the new chapter, so here you go.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_O Reader, how many an evil that you see in others is  
but your own nature reflected in them!_

—_The Evil in Ourselves_ by Rumi

* * *

Long before Kakashi would have liked, the gloom is lifting and it's gotten to the point that he doesn't need the fire (which has long since smoldered down to dimly glowing embers, and is abruptly snuffed out via a whispered water jutsu) to discern his surroundings. He doesn't even really know why he was so dreading the morning.

Yugito, far from the grim not-humor and mockery of the night before, is imbued this morning with a professional calm as she slides up from the ground in a fluid, feline stretch and smoothes down her silvery hair. The languorous contortions she makes stretching seem almost inhuman, but to be a jinchuuriki is to be distinctly uncanny.

"I guess we start heading south." Her expression is perfectly neutral, with eyes glazed like blue cat's eye marbles. Yugito's arms are tucked behind her as though she's trying to compact herself, as small as possible.

Kakashi nods wearily, creaking under the spectral weight of her detachment and his knowledge of what this has turned into. A kidnapping in all but name, with her status as a captive but thinly veiled. "Yes. It'll be slow going, though." With her chakra sealed, Yugito certainly can't chakra walk across the trees, and it's not like Kakashi could carry her; by Konoha standards, he's considered a very tall man, but Yugito barely has to tilt her chin up to be on eye level with him, and though she's slender, she's hardly small. The journey, on foot, over this terrain, will take three weeks at least.

There's a Leaf-controlled outpost on the border with Kusa no Kuni. We'll be able to stop there for more supplies, and medical attention if either one of us need it." Personally, Kakashi hopes that neither of them will need it.

Silently, the girl nods, and Kakashi starts to lead her southwards, towards the village best-known for prodigies and acquisitiveness.

.

_**You are a fool, you know. Even for a human; I thought better of you, Yugito.**_

What, among other things, Yugito would prefer for Kakashi (or _anyone_, for that matter) not to know is that an unaccounted-for peculiarity of her seal allows the Nibi to talk to her, and vice versa, though the Nibi generally has to be the one to initiate the conversation, or else Yugito can never be sure if her mental roommate is even listening to her.

Talk she does, though most of their talks usually end up devolving into arguments; the Nibi is querulous and capricious, and Yugito can't resist baiting her. That's what she does now, pale eyes flickering slightly.

_I don't know what you mean._

_**Do not toy with me, human. This is madness. These people will wash you out and spit you back up, and rip you apart when they're done with you.**_

_And Kumo didn't? _Yugito retorts heatedly, glad Kakashi can't hear this conversation. Some things really need to be kept private. She continues walking on, three footsteps behind the Leaf nin.

_**At least in that other village you had for your allies the leader of the shinobi there and my brother the Hachibi. Who will you have in this southern village? No one. No one will come to your aid. No one will protect you, and no one will be at your side.**_

Yugito's lips form a grim, thin-lipped smile. _You manage to sound so concerned, Nekomata, but I remain undeceived. You are possibly the most self-serving creature in existence. You're just worried because the body you're occupying right now might get damaged. And we both know that wouldn't be good for you._

It's the truth. The seal that was used to imprison the Nibi no Nekomata inside of Yugito is not a particularly strong one. The Nibi could escape from Yugito's body at any time, and the Yondaime knew this when he sealed the Nibi inside of her. To give the Nibi a vested interest in staying in Yugito's body and protecting her host from serious injury and death, the Yondaime put another seal on top of the other one.

Its purpose was to bind the Nibi and Yugito's chakra together, to essentially take two threads and knot them together so completely that they can't be undone. If the Nibi were ever to leave Yugito's body, it would leave behind fully half of its power in its erstwhile host, and if Yugito were ever to die while the Nibi was still inside of her, she would die too. The Nibi has developed something of a grudging respect for her host over the years, if only because she knows Yugito holds the power of life and death over her.

A long silence comes after Yugito's statement, and she knows she's given the bijuu pause for thought.

Finally, the Nibi says: _**I can not deny the truth, Yugito. **_Peculiarly, the Nibi is rendered incapable of lying directly; as Yugito knows, the Nibi is honor-bound to tell the truth in any and all situations. However, she has left out vital details in the past (the Nibi loves exploiting loopholes), and Yugito is still wary of relying on her information.

_**However, you know as well as I do that there is another solution to this. I can not give you my chakra unless you permit it, but if you were to let me, I could channel my chakra to the seal on your throat. It would be more than enough to burst the seal and return access of your chakra to you. With that, the shinobi would be powerless to take you anywhere you did not wish to go.**_

_But you said that might kill me, didn't you? _Yugito frowns, highly skeptical. She steps on a patch of dappled light. _Or at least cause serious injury, right?_

Another pause.

…_**There is a risk.**_

Pale, silvery blue eyes roll back in Yugito's head. _Of course there's a risk. _She can feel the Nibi bristling at her host's sarcasm. _There's _always _a risk. Thanks, but no thanks. There are safer ways to do this._

_**So you would willingly walk into fire and darkness? **_The Nibi is incredulous now. _**You would cast your neck before the executioner's axe, put yourself in a situation you can not escape from? Yugito, you imbecilic fool!**_

_**Humanity is the embodiment of treachery. From the first, all that they have done is done for the purpose of destroying everyone else, bettering themselves at the expense of others.**_

_**I repeat myself. This is madness.**_

She sighs, feeling far older than fifteen. _I…I know. I'm just so tired of being hunted._

After this the Nibi refuses to speak to her anymore. Not that either one of them had anything more to say to each other.


	9. Chapter Eight

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_I keep my answers small and keep them near;  
Big questions bruised my mind but still I let  
Small answers be a bulwark to my fear._

—_Answers _by Elizabeth Jennings

* * *

"You know, I'm at a bit of a disadvantage here." Yugito's pale eyes are all too innocent as she stares up at Kakashi, shrewd and calculating beneath that wide-eyed façade.

Kakashi is careful to gaze straight ahead, choosing to focus on the bleak bloom ahead of him, only occasionally broken by skylight-like gaps in the canopy to let light through, instead of her face. He doesn't need to be giving her any cues. "How's that?"

Her lips thin slightly as Yugito brushes her bangs out of her eyes (she doesn't wear a hitai-ate, Kakashi notices, at least not anymore), and adjusts her bag on her shoulder. Yugito has so far demanded only one two things, that she be given her sword back and she be allowed to retrieve her bag from the place, a deep hollow in the forest, where she was camping, and Kakashi can see nothing unreasonable about her request. The bag, brown burlap and not particularly big, is now swung over Yugito's slightly sloping left shoulder; her katana is secured at the small of her back, the black-lacquered sheath gleaming dully. "You know my name, but I don't know yours," she points out. "It's not like I can go on calling you Leaf nin."

Personally, Kakashi isn't terribly inclined to give his name to this girl. Tired, somewhat malnourished (it's hard not to notice the way her bones jut out at the wrists and collar) and with her chakra sealed, Yugito does not pose a lethal threat, but she's still a trained ANBU, Kumo's known for producing good ANBU, and Kakashi wouldn't like to take any chances. "I don't know _why_ you can't go on calling me Leaf nin," he murmurs wearily. "I don't see anything wrong with it."

Yugito frowns. "Well, I do." Her voice is quiet but strong and assertive. "I don't like not knowing the name of someone I'm going to be stuck alone with for the next few weeks at least. I don't talk much, normally, but when I do I get a little flustered if I don't know the name of the person I'm talking to."

Kakashi sighs. She's not going to let this go, and he has little patience for repeated requests, over and over again. Redundancy grates on his nerves. "My name is Hatake Kakashi."

Far from stemming the flow of Yugito's curiosity, this just seems to unleash the tide, as her eyes grow round and her pupils dilate to engulf blue irises in black. "Really?"

Weariness evokes another sigh. "Yes, really."

Yugito nods and is silent for several moments, staring pensively down at the ground. In Kumo, there are two different schools of thought on Hatake Kakashi.

One, is that he doesn't really exist.

Two, is that he's the boogeyman.

This… This is not quite what she expected.

After a while of silent walking, Yugito blinks shyly up at him, circling her left eye with her fingers. "Do you really have the…the…" Yugito trails off, whether because politeness has prevented her from asking or simply because her courage has failed her Kakashi doesn't know.

There's no use denying it, since she'll find out later and it's such a stupid lie to tell. "Yes," Kakashi admits evenly, not missing a beat. "The rumors you have no doubt heard—" and it's suddenly a foul taste on his mouth, to hear himself echoing the Sandaime's words "—are completely true. I have an implanted Sharingan in my left eye socket."

Eyes widen even further, reminiscent of a child being exposed to an intricate toy for the first time, and the change of expression on her face is strangely endearing, in an odd sort of way. She doesn't seem completely incapable of childlike behavior. "You know, I've heard lots of stories about how you got that thing. I don't dare believe any of them."

Now, she's starting to edge into familiar territory. Uncomfortable territory, as it stands. Perhaps more brusquely than he intends, Kakashi pointedly asks, "And what makes you think you can't believe any of these stories?" It would be nice if she didn't start to pry stories out of him. Kakashi has no stomach for explaining himself to a near-stranger.

Either Yugito can't take a hint or she just enjoys needling people, because she shrugs languidly and launches into an oddly calm-voiced explanation. "Because every story I've heard is either farfetched or mere madness weaving lunacy. Some people assume your mother was an Uchiha and that you were born with only one Sharingan as a result; I could have told them that Uchiha women were never allowed to marry outside of their clan, in order to keep their bloodline from passing into the hands of those not of their blood. And still more think you harvested it from the corpse of one of the Uchiha killed in the massacre two years ago; again, I could have told them that you—" her catlike eyes narrow shrewdly "—are reported to have first gained that Sharingan a full nine years before the massacre. And that, my friend, is about as good as it gets; the stories only get more implausible and idiotic from there."

Kakashi snorts. Raw spots keep getting hit indiscriminately today. The only thing he can be grateful for is that the stories Kumo villagers come up with are so far off the mark. "And what do you think?" he questions her caustically.

She pauses for a moment to think, gathering the words with which she'll articulate her answer. Somewhere in the wilderness, a bird screams in distress as if it has been suddenly disturbed, then another. Then another. Kakashi frowns in the direction of the birds' frantic squawks, but after a moment of silence, he tears his gaze away. _It's nothing…_

Yugito's eyes narrow, not in shrewdness or in any sort of calculation, as she answers, very quietly. "I think that some questions go better if they remain unanswered."

After this, both quiet by nature, they pass into silence as they walk on.

Kakashi continues to listen for the sounds of offended birds as they walk, trying to shake off suspicion.


	10. Chapter Nine

Okay, I have finally updated! I hope you guys like this one too.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_What candles may be held to speed them all?  
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes  
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes._

—_Anthem for Doomed Youth _by Wilfred Owen

* * *

_Why do dreams always entail fog wherever the mind doesn't want you to look? Kakashi sighs wearily as he wanders the dreamscape and prays the ground won't give out underneath his feet again._

_He had that happen to him once. It was annoying, not to mention Kakashi thought he was about to have a heart attack in the middle of a dream. That would not have been good._

_You'd better hurry up, Kakashi._

"_Why do I always have to be hurrying, Obito?" He can't bring himself to be annoyed with his friend, but it's getting wearisome. "Why do I always have to hurry?"_

_Don't ask questions, Kakashi. Obito's voice seems strangely sad. Just…Just hurry._

Kakashi wakes up to the softly acrid smell of the fire burning down. A thin spire of sickly gray smoke rises from cool wood, and he's alone.

With a jolt, Kakashi sits up.

The place where Yugito was sleeping is bare. He swings his head around sharply, surveying everything he can see in the gloom of the forest, heart racing.

"Bloody Hell!"

.

Kakashi searches, frantic in a way he hasn't been in years—_the flavor of horror is coppery and not quite far gone enough to be a stranger—_as the trees all look the same, dark and twisted with long fingers for branches.

He can't believe Yugito could just be carried off in the middle of the night without enough of a fight being put up to wake him up; he's a light sleeper and he's sure the sound of a struggle would have woken him.

Of course, given her personality, Yugito could have just as easily wandered off. He wouldn't put that past her.

Finally, Kakashi picks up on the smell of fresh blood and his heart jumps even harder, and skids over wet, dewy leaves in the direction of the smell.

And there, kneeling on the stony shore of a large pond, the waters gray and smooth as glass, is Yugito, placidly jointing a hare in hands soaked and encrusted with congealing blood. The ends of her pant legs are sodden with water.

Kakashi expels a relieved breath, and wonders why on earth he was so worried.

"Would you mind warning me the next time you plan on wandering off?" he snaps, sounding more like a shaken parent than a nin escort.

The look the young girl gives him a look out of veiled, glossy eyes that is to Kakashi's eyes disturbingly knowing and piercing. "You were asleep." Her voice is soft, unusually neutral. "And I was hungry."

Then, without further ceremony, she tears a bit of flesh off of the hapless hare's rib cage and pops it in her mouth, smearing pale lips and white cheeks garish, gaudy crimson.

Kakashi gapes at her. "Uh, Nii-san?"

"Yes?"

"That's…that's…"

"Raw?" An icy glint of humor appears in Yugito's eyes, as she wipes the blood off of her cheeks with the back of her bandaged forearm. Her lips are still stained dark though, making them seem wider. "Yes, I know." She holds out another gory hunk of meat. "Did you want some?"

The look out of one black eye mingles horror, disgust and exasperation. "No thank you." He can feel his appetite dwindling with every moment.

She merely smiles thinly and pops the bloody meat in her mouth. "More for me, then."

This is the point when Kakashi notices something about Yugito's cast-in-ice smile. It's false. All of it, lies, and Kakashi can't say he's surprised. She hasn't really smiled once, the whole time they've been together in this forest.

For a few moments, Yugito continues to tear at the flesh of the hare and eat her fill, with a suddenly voracious appetite unlike anything Kakashi's seen out of her before.

A single eye levels coolly on Kakashi, vertical pupil keen and nearly invisible among pale, glacial blue. "So…" The keenly inquisitive note in her voice is almost completely submerged. "Who's Obito?"

He stares at her, not sure he's heard right. "What?" Kakashi blurts out.

Her face becomes even more intensely mask-like as she repeats herself—an ANBU's most valuable trait. "Who is Obito? I heard you muttering that name in your sleep."

A sharp, sick stab of pain splits through his stomach, eradicating what little of his appetite he has left. He doesn't want to discuss this, especially not with her. "Nii-san…"

"Yugito," she suddenly mutters, back tensing.

"What?"

"Call me Yugito." Yugito looks up, an uncharacteristically strained look on her face. "Everyone in Kumogakure, apart from Kirabi, always called me Nii-san, even my cousins. Please."

Slowly, he nods, taking note of this with numb interest. "Yugito… I… I am under no obligation to explain myself to you." Sarcastically, he adds, "Should you hear me muttering in my sleep again, you should kick me in the ribs until I wake up or die. Whichever happens first."

Yugito nods obediently, sagely. "Alright." Her crimson-dyed fingernails run lingeringly across the soft, dull brown fur of the hare's corpse. "You must have killed him," she notes absently.

_This _gets Kakashi's attention. "What?" He is sharp as the edge of any kunai, visible eye glinting hard.

The Kumo nin doesn't quail under his gaze, pale brow perfectly smooth as she tilts her head up to look at him. Perfectly bland, but somehow more incisive than ever. "The only comrades," Yugito murmurs, "that we ever dream about after they're gone are the ones we had to kill."

She's got it all wrong. However, Kakashi doesn't see any need to disabuse her of this notion. If Yugito thinks he killed Obito, fine; let her continue to labor on this notion. He has no scruples about letting her believe erroneous notions in order to throw her off the scent.

And Yugito doesn't stop, unusually chatty this gray morning. "You know, I had to kill a fellow Kumo nin on a mission once." It's amazing, how she can give bits of information like this so casually.

Kakashi doesn't stop her. He's hardly surprised by this, and doubts he'll hear anything out of this little anecdote—he's sure this is what this is going to turn into—that he hasn't heard before.

Light silvery blue eyes are blank and distant, seeing something different as she tosses the hare away and laces her fingers together, fingernails of her index fingers scratching absently over each other.

"It was about two years ago, and I had been sent on a mission with three others. We were infiltrating a post in Iwa, and we were discovered. My partner for that mission was badly wounded in our escape.

"He didn't like me all that much. In fact, he didn't like me at all. Must have been my _charming_ personality—" her face is very bitter now "—because he wouldn't so much as speak to me politely the whole time we were there.

"I remember, there was his blood staining on my palms. I'm…I'm no good for heavy lifting," her voice is getting very soft now, "and I couldn't carry him. Our teammates had already left; they preferred to save their own skins rather than risk them for a wounded man and a jinchuuriki." She spits the word out like an obscenity, and Kakashi winces.

"He was coughing up blood; he'd been stabbed in the liver. Then," Yugito's voice drops to a whisper, barely audible, "he looked at me and said, 'Kill me, Nii-san. If there's anything you're good for, it's making a quick kill. I know you know how to do that.' And I remember laughing, a little bit, because he hated me, yet he trusted me enough to have me kill him.

Kakashi feels the need to interject in this point, eyeing her a little warily, feeling pity, unwilling and numb. "And you slit his throat?" he asks softly. The cutting of the throat is the most common method of mercy killings in the shinobi world.

Silver-sheen hair glistens as Yugito shakes her head vigorously. "No." She still sounds like she's recounting a day at the grocery store. "I took a kunai, and put it through his heart. I hesitated a little—I don't know why, really—but I didn't take long." She looks up, and smiles, and Kakashi shivers. "He was right. If there's one thing I know about, Kakashi, it's how to kill quickly, with no pain."

Kakashi nods, silent, and when she continues to scratch at her fingernails, he tentatively reaches out, and puts a hand on her thin, painfully bony shoulder. "Yugito?"

She hops away as if burned, and stands, washing her hands in the water and then wiping them off on her black trousers indelicately. "We should get going," Yugito points out unnecessarily, back to a falsely chirpy soprano.

What a charming and utterly transparent façade.

As Kakashi walks, still listening for the sound of brush being disturbed or birds being upset, Yugito taps his shoulder, and stares up at him with wide, solemn eyes.

"I am…sorry about your friend."

Kakashi frowns, and wonders if he shouldn't be the one saying this to her.

* * *

Okay, that was kind of pointless, but I swear, it will be the last filler chapter. I was just trying to get a feel for the extent of Yugito's dysfunctional mental state.


	11. Chapter Ten

I normally hate Dickinson, but here you go for the quote. And, once again, a thousand apologies for making you wait so long for the update. I've been working on this all afternoon.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_There is a word  
Which bears a sword  
Can pierce an armed man -  
It hurls its barbed syllables  
And is mute again_

—_There is a word_ by Emily Dickinson

* * *

"So, what is Konoha like?"

Kakashi is scanning the trees and shadows around him with a wary eye, trying to determine whether he's hearing things when he thinks he can hear twigs snapping and voices whispering just out of sight. Is it justified, or simply the paranoia of one who hasn't been comfortable in his surroundings for over ten years since a bijuu had attacked his village?

That's when he hears Yugito's voice interrupting his thoughts, inserting itself there almost seamlessly with the sort of deafness that should have come after only years of acquaintance, not the space of a few days.

When Kakashi turns his head to the left she's flashing another of those false smiles at him—he wonders if Yugito knows how her smiles look and if she just does that to mock him. The stain's mostly gone from her mouth but her lips still seem slightly red. Blue eyes gleam with (mostly) innocent curiosity.

"Could you repeat that?" Kakashi asks with mock cheer, still paying more attention to the snapping of branches than he is to his traveling companion.

"What is Konoha like?" Yugito enunciates the words insistently and in the manner one would use with a child who is either hard of hearing or not particularly bright; Kakashi's inclined to lean towards the latter. She hovers on the words, waiting almost breathlessly for him to enlighten her.

For himself, Kakashi raises an eyebrow and ceases to pay attention to the way the shadows dance on his awareness. "I thought you already had fixed opinions about Konoha, Yugito."

She shrugs. "About the politics of the place, yes, and why shouldn't I, since we've already established that I'm not wrong?" Kakashi winces and Yugito can see she's made her point. "But the village itself is a mystery—the Raikage's intelligence reports don't cover the daily life of villagers unless they're tailing someone." Her eyes narrow. "So what I want to know is what is Konoha like? Not the politics, not the military, just the life of the village itself, from someone who should know."

Kakashi pauses.

"I've got a right to know."

Yugito makes a point with that. _She certainly has no scruples about making me feel guilty_, Kakashi admits to himself ruefully; then again, he's known few kunoichi to be squeamish about inducing guilt in anyone—Yugito would probably get along well with Mitarashi Anko, if they didn't kill each other first.

Kakashi has begun to be absorbed of the strong suspicion that Yugito doesn't say anything without there being an ulterior motive to her questions. And there, he realizes with even greater chagrin, lies the trap: as long as he does not know _what_ ulterior motive Yugito holds, he can't call her out on it.

There is nothing he can do, but answer her.

"Well," he starts cautiously, wishing absurdly that he could catch some glimpse of sunlight out through the trees, "Konoha is, for population, larger than Kiri but smaller than all the others; the population is at about twenty thousand right now, give or take. We'd be having issues with overcrowding except the Kyuubi's attack ten years ago wiped out a good portion of the population." Yugito nods to indicate she understands; unlike Kakashi, she doesn't wince at any touchy bit of information.

"Konoha isn't a military state like Kiri or Iwa; the citizens have a considerably wider range of civil liberties, though protests are, of course, off limits and anyone caught participating will be subject to arrest and trial." A short chirp of mocking laughter leaves Yugito's lips and Kakashi knows that she knows what he's talking about.

Kakashi is almost tempted to smile as he goes on. "The people are open there, relatively friendly—though not to outsiders," he's quick to add, hoping this won't burst any bubble of Yugito's. It doesn't; not that there was any bubble to begin with. "We're not unique. Konoha's prosperity is starting to rise again—we're finally getting out of the economic slump that followed the Yondaime's death. The people trust each other."

Yugito's eyes narrow shrewdly in an expression that is becoming all too familiar to Kakashi. "Even after the loss of the Uchiha clan? From what I understand the rest of the village was isolating them in the weeks prior to the massacre; for a while it looked like it was going to amount to civil war."

Eyes close tight. What a sorry mess that was, especially so for another village so far away to have picked up on it. "Yes, even after that. The village has mostly forgotten." Except for one small boy who roams the streets of Konohagakure and goes unnoticed by everyone, going mad in his grief and lust for revenge.

The sound of a branch cracking echoes resoundingly through the forest and Kakashi tenses for a moment, going back to his over-stimulated state of awareness. Every shadow sways like the silhouette of an unfriendly nin, before he manages to relax.

_There's no one here,_ Kakashi keeps trying to tell himself. _No one but me and Yugito._ His gut isn't always right, he tells himself—though it's rarely wrong. It's just that apart from what he thinks he can hear, there's been no sign of anyone following them—no cook fires or signs of the brush being disturbed.

"Anything else?" Yugito asks, tilting her eyes so she's staring through her lashes up at him—Kakashi's not sure what she means to accomplish by that.

Kakashi can only shrug. "I'm not sure what you want to know, Yugito. The most common fare you'll find there is pork barbecue, about half the young shinobi have posters of Senju Tsunade up on their walls—"

"Would that include you?"

"_No_."

"Just asking."

"—and the resident jinchuuriki is a ten-year-old boy who runs around like a lunatic whooping at the top of his lungs while proclaiming himself the progenitor of all inhuman chaos in Konohagakure, and has become the bane of nearly all the shopkeepers and shinobi in the village who don't already hate him for being the vessel of the Kyuubi," Kakashi concludes, deadpan flawless. "Anything else?"

Yugito rolls her eyes at the mention of Naruto, but then an inscrutable, thin-lipped expression comes over her face and she says nothing, for nearly a minute, before Kakashi, inexplicably, seeks to break the silence with a crinkling of his eyes and a tip-up of the hand.

"So, mind telling me about Kumo?"

Her pale face registers surprise. "Why on earth do _you_ want to know about Kumo? Aren't all Leaf nin supposed to have a superiority complex and believe that all other villages are worthless?" she asks sarcastically.

_So much fun to find out what foreigners think of us_, Kakashi responds silently with equal sarcasm. He manages a overly ebullient smile behind the mask. "Because I just told you about Konoha."

The kunoichi from Kumo sighs. "Well," she murmurs, staring off to one side, studying the grass with an intensity usually reserved for a nin staring into the eyes of a dying victim, "first of all, I want you to know exactly how much I hate that word."

Kakashi stares at her blankly, and Yugito shakes her head.

"You know the one."

_Ah… Jinchuuriki._

"It objectifies us." Yugito's face is especially strained now, and coolly matter of fact at the same time. This is how she hashes out what she considers the facts of life. "When someone calls me "jinchuuriki", it means that they no longer see me as a person, or even as a human being. They see the host, the bijuu. They don't see me, or if they do, they only see a vessel, a flesh coat for a demon. However," she notes, still matter of fact, "you don't seem to view Uzumaki Naruto in quite that fashion, so why do you call him that?"

At an utter loss for words, Kakashi gapes at her before Yugito cuts him off in such a way that makes it seem as though she's sorry she asked. "Never mind. Now, about Kumo…"

At the sound of rustling from behind his field of vision, Kakashi goes back to scanning the horizon, lifting his hitai-ate so he can watch more closely.

What he sees sends him cursing under his breath and cursing himself for not using the Sharingan earlier.

Kakashi swings his gaze around to Yugito, and is once against lost for words at what he sees.

Even with her chakra sealed, Yugito's spare frame still sings with a nearly overwhelming amalgam of her own chakra and the Nibi's; any Hyuuga who activated the Byakugan while looking at her would almost certainly fall to the ground blinded.

The utter blackness of the Nibi's chakra drowns out Yugito's own—presumably due to its having been sealed—and is its blinding self from being, Kakashi realizes after a second, the absolute absence of light. It devours the light. Moreover, it reeks of death, which Kakashi supposes makes sense—the Nibi is a nekomata, after all. Yugito never notices his shocked scrutiny of her.

He comes back to his senses when he hears the song of kunai slicing through the air.

"Get down!" Kakashi roars at Yugito, grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her to the ground as kunai and shuriken fly overhead.


	12. Chapter Eleven

Happy New Year's, everybody! Again, horribly sorry for the long wait. Also, I had a hard time finding an appropriate poem for this one. Hope it works.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_I come from killing.  
I go to more.  
I drive red joy ahead of me from killing.  
Red gluts and red hungers run in the smears and juices of my inside bones:  
The child cries for a suck mother and I cry for war_

—_Fight _by Carl Sandburg

* * *

The first thing Kakashi hears is not the singing of kunai overhead or the possible shouts and footsteps of the enemy, but the thump of Yugito's heart racing as she lies on the ground next to him, his arms still around her shoulders. Her hands are braced on the back of her neck as though she expects a shower of rubble overhead.

"Are you alright?" Kakashi demands, thinking he can imagine her blood spill onto his hands and wincing a little at the dread that thought brings.

She doesn't answer.

"Yugito? Yugito!"

"I'm… I'm okay." Yugito sounds more than a little shaken, though that's probably the shock of hitting the ground so hard and fast. Her breathing seems unnaturally loud, and hot on his skin as two eyes with highly dilated pupils, like a frightened cat. "How many of them do you think there are?" Yugito whispers. Kakashi isn't quite sure why she's whispering; he fails to see how the volume of her voice makes any difference.

"I don't know," Kakashi responds honestly, before letting out a stream of obscenities that Yugito pretends not to notice. "Damn it," he hisses. "I should have been able to—"

His ranting is cut off by the ominous, musical scraping sound just off to his right. Yugito is, slowly, drawing her katana from its sheath and the intent is obvious in her dilated eyes. She turns her gaze, calmer and stiller with the prospect of battle now than she was when they first met—a change Kakashi isn't entirely sure he likes.

Those eyes are different than anything Kakashi has seen out of Yugito. He has seen her wary, shy, sardonic, curious, whimsical and morbid, but there is a stillness now completely at odds with the turmoil that he has guessed at lying beneath the surface. As if a switch has been turned off—or on. Those eyes, mostly black with blue rings like coronae, are the eyes of a killer. Not just a nin, but one who kills for a living.

Kakashi can't say that he's very surprised. But he is just a little sad. The way her thin arms tense is so familiar and he can almost see his own face, at her age, grafted onto Yugito's.

"I don't think…" Yugito's quiet voice is deadly calm. "…I don't think that blaming ourselves for something we should have been able to see coming—" there's just a slight hint of a bite in her voice at this and the only thing that allows Kakashi to restrain himself from bristling is the sudden realization that that bite is just as much for herself as for him; Yugito has been berating herself for ignorance just as much as he has "—is going to help either of us." Her expression softens slightly, some of the ice melting away. "Use your head. Think."

As if he's a raw genin again obeying the orders of a much more experienced jonin, Kakashi nods. "You're… You're right. They have to run out of kunai and shuriken sometime."

Yugito stares at him, mouth slightly open as though this is a revelation she had not thought of—and Kakashi realizes that she hadn't thought of it. "You're right," she murmurs, brow furrowing and eyes darting back and forth. If Kakashi stares hard he thinks he can see the cogs of her brain working. Then suddenly, with the hand not clenched around the hilt of her sword, she tugs on Kakashi's sleeve to get his attention. "And they don't know exactly where we are, do they?" The expression on her face is a little incredulous now. "They're just throwing those weapons blind. No sense of direction at all."

Kakashi comes to the logical conclusion of this line of though. "Come on," he mutters. "If we crawl we can probably get out of the line of fire, and figure out where they are."

It's a slow, awkward business, crawling away from the area where kunai and shuriken are being flung, with no sense of order, from every direction. For Yugito the process is slower; she's still clenching her katana with her knuckles white around the hilt, and she presses her hand down on the forest bed in such a way as to be convenient for her.

When they finally get to a roof, Kakashi puts a warning hand on her shoulder. "Hey, listen. Don't do anything stupid. I have every intention of getting you back to Konoha _alive_."

Yugito smirks. "What's the matter? Getting attached? I don't think nin are supposed to do that."

This strikes an uncomfortable chord in Kakashi, one he pushes down viciously because he has no desire to contemplate it now. A problem—or maybe not a problem; just a conundrum—for a day when he's _not_ trying to figure out how to outrun—or outfight—an unknown number of attackers. "Well maybe I am." Kakashi's voice is a slightly exasperated stream of air; he doesn't bother trying to deny it. "But that's not relevant right now. Right now, we've got to figure out how many men we're dealing with and get rid of them."

She nods. "Fair enough."

"Look." Kakashi fixes her in a sharp gaze, making sure Yugito pays attention. "I think we're close to the border of the forest." Yugito opens her mouth to speak and he cuts her off. "I've seen a little bit of light through the trees in the direction we've been walking. Plus, my guess is that the people trailing us opened fire just now because they thought it was now or never. Once we get beyond the border of the forest, it's a little less than a mile to the base on the border of Kusa no Kuni."

"But we're not out of the woods yet." As sharp as Kakashi is, Yugito tempers it by being blunt. "In either figurative or literal terms. So what do we do?"

Before Kakashi can answer, the snap of a twig within several yards of them makes their hearts pound in time. Kakashi flinches and reaches for his kunai holster; primed for battle, Yugito sweeps narrowed eyes around like a search light.

"There's one of them," she whispers with a cold and terrible anticipation in her eyes, pointing a single long finger into the half-gloom, and Kakashi shudders when he sees the expression on her face. _What has that village done to her? I've never seen a nin behave like this before going into battle._

…_Not a sane nin, anyway._ And the state of Nii Yugito's sanity is, Kakashi supposes, a matter of some debate.

But he still feels a stab of worry in him, at the thought of what might happen to her. Even though she is—from what Kakashi has seen—a superb swordswoman, Yugito has with her chakra sealed only taijutsu to back up that sword. No ninjutsu, no genjutsu.

"You stay close to me," Kakashi mutters, wrapping a hand around her upper arm.

Yugito has other plans. "Like Hell." She rips herself free of his grasp and lunges forward, sword held aloft.

A cold wash of alarm hits Kakashi like the onset of winter in one blow. "Yugito, no!" he roars, hopping up after her, kunai ready.

The tall girl impales one man on her sword, pushes him off viciously and is soon accosted by a woman and two other men. Kakashi runs forward to help her, but finds himself engaged with two problems of his own.

Kakashi makes quick work of the two men and lets them drop to the ground, full of kunai that he plucks out of their corpses to use again, before straightening to his feet, staring around wildly for Yugito. They need to stick together, he keeps telling himself. They can't get separated; people like this thrive on divide and conquer, picking nin off one by one.

She is nowhere to be found.

"Damn it, Yugito," he whispers, half infuriated, half afraid.

And within an instant, the lull in-between battles is gone, and violent hands are on him again.


	13. Chapter Twelve

As you have probably gathered, I get sidetracked easily. That said, here is the new chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_Tyger Tyger. burning bright,_  
_In the forests of the night;_  
_What immortal hand or eye._  
_Could frame thy fearful symmetry?_

—_The Tyger_ by William Blake

* * *

Swing, strike, stab, stroke. The slim, gleaming katana flies at enemies nearly of its own accord as Yugito finds herself being driven further and further into the shadows of the dark forest away from her traveling companion.

_**Yugito, you need me.**_

The kunoichi's only response is to give no response to her internal boarder, still driving her sword at these nameless adversaries, staring into their eyes (all pale as her own, blues and grays and greens in the gloom) and trying to discern in them any sign that any one of her attackers is on the verge of yielding.

She finds none.

Though Yugito knows herself to be superior to her attackers in strength under normal circumstances, she is all too keenly aware (not that the Nibi will ever _let_ her forget) that these are not normal circumstances, that she can't use lightning jutsus to neutralize them or blow a black fireball and incinerate her would be captors (Or killers, depending on their intent). That she is sorely outnumbered—three to one and Yugito expects more to jump from the shadows at any moment—does not escape her notice either.

Her katana is nearly everywhere at once, and the place where it is not is costly; Yugito flinches and the pale eyes of the woman opposite her gleam in triumph as a wakizashi digs into her side, gaining the first blood against her of the battle.

Yugito finds herself jumping back, running for cover, heart pounding and mind screaming because the cut's supposed to be _gone_ by now. Only it's not, she tells herself, because the Nibi can't do anything for her.

_It's just a nick, it's just a nick. You won't bleed to death and it won't kill you. It'll stop bleeding soon and it'll scab over, just like cuts do for people who _don't_ have a great bloody bijuu sealed inside of them._

_**And what makes you think it will be the last cut, if this situation progresses as you and I both expect it to?**_

The Nibi's voice is sharper than usual. Usually, when the Nibi speaks to her, whether civilly or not, her voice is analytically lazy, as if she can't be bothered to take a great deal of interest of what's happening to her host and her. Now, the nekomata is anything but detached: tense and, if Yugito examines closely, she thinks she can detect just a hint of nervousness in her voice. That makes her feel worse about her chances than anything else could.

_**Since you did not deign to answer me the first time I spoke, I can only assume that your sense of hearing has diminished. I will say it again. You need me, Yugito.**_

_And what exactly do I need you for? _This is without a doubt the worst time Yugito could have picked for baiting the Nibi, when she's fighting for her life and just doing well to have her heart beating out of her chest, but standards, Yugito upholds stubbornly, have to be maintained. _The last time I checked, _you're _the one who needs _me_, not the other way around_, Yugito spits sarcastically.

An exasperated snarl greets this. _**Yugito—**_

_What?_

Voice tenser than ever, the Nibi replies, _**Yugito, they are coming back**_.

Yugito barely thrusts her katana upwards in time to avoid being gored through the ribs by the nodachi one of the men wields.

_Oh… Thank you._

As the fighting goes on and it becomes ever clearer to Yugito that she is, for all her skill with a sword and with taijutsu outmatched here, she starts to wonder about Kakashi.

She can't see him anymore. To be honest, she hasn't been able to see him for a while. She prays they're heading in the same direction—Yugito knows she's being pushed towards the edge of the forest, even if the gloom does seem darker now—and finds herself hoping beyond hope that he's still alright. The man most likely lives up to his reputation, but he's fighting against more than one man too, and these people, even if they do not employ ninjutsu or genjutsu, are still dangerous.

_He'll be alright. You don't need to be worrying about a Leaf nin anyway, especially not Hatake Kakashi. He can handle himself._

Her katana parries a blow from the nodachi and Yugito just barely manages to duck around the katana that swipes at her knees. She thinks she can hear the reverberation of heavy footsteps and shouts from deeper in the forest; more men. Yugito prays she's wrong.

_Don't worry about him. _Yugito takes a step backwards, staggering as a fist collides with her jaw; the world spins for just a moment before she recovers, spitting blood—her teeth have clenched on the inside of her cheek—from her mouth and relishing the momentary taste of copper against her tongue.

But she still does.

She doesn't know why.

_You don't owe him anything. He looks at you and sees what you have inside you, just like everyone else. You don't owe him anything. He hasn't done anything to deserve your worry. You've never worried about anyone before. Why start now?_

Yugito gnaws her lip as she continues her dance, and hopes that Kakashi is alright.

She's not in any position to help him.

.

Cursing himself once more, Kakashi wonders if this ragged band was on the trail from the time Yugito left Kumogakure or if they didn't find her until he met up with her. Either way, he should have become aware of this threat before now and gotten rid of _all_ the potential attackers. The forest should have been strewn with corpses by now, and instead he's fighting for his life.

Yugito fights for hers too.

He had his orders, to get her to Konoha safely, in one piece. Kakashi knew it wouldn't be a safe mission, knew it would be dangerous. He should have been more cautious, more alert, letting his eyes scan the forest constantly, but instead he found himself sidetracked by the disturbing conversation of an equally disturbing girl.

And now, Kakashi finds himself paying a truly appropriate price for his inattention. Attackers at all angles (_four of them, burly men, two with thick, heavy swords, one with a tanto and the last flinging all the kunai, shuriken and senbon he can get his hands on_), with war and Death gleaming in their eyes, wanting nothing more than to devour his blood.

Where _has_ Yugito gone?

There exists the obligation to return with her to Konoha—the mission is one of such magnitude that Kakashi knows full well that if he doesn't return with Yugito, he may as well not return at all; the product will be about the same, except the imprisonment will only be symbolic if Kakashi does return. Kakashi has his orders, and he will do everything in his power to follow through on them.

Kakashi smiles grimly at the four men who circle like wolves, as lightning starts to glitter at his hand.

.

Yugito pants, gasping in pain as blood slips from the side opposite of the one first nicked. This is no simple nick itself; this is something deeper that screams whenever she tries to move and cuts into her speed and reaction time no less effectively than a sedative would. Without her chakra she's lost her edge against multiple opponents and she knows it.

_**Yugito you must allow me access! **_There's the acrid flavor of desperation to the Nibi's voice now; she's starting to panic, wondering if her host really will allow them both to die if it comes to that. _**We will both perish if you do not permit me to break the seal!**_

_Shut up!_

The Nibi is in too much a state of alarm to argue with Yugito, so she falls silent and waits; Yugito knows precisely what she's waiting for, and her knuckles bleed white over the long hilt of her katana as she grits her teeth. She doesn't care if the Nibi's right or not; never has Yugito been in the habit of giving way to the bijuu's will and she isn't about to start now.

One of the men falls before her blade, howling as he twists into the abyss and tumbles down a hill. For a moment it looks as though the tide has turned in Yugito's favor; the woman and the remaining man take a step back and she smiles a cruel, twisted grin of triumph, licking blood from her lips and exposing her small, sharp teeth. It's a very satisfying fantasy, to imagine what she'll do to them, rip them limb from limb and leave nothing for their comrades to find.

Then, her illusion is shattered.

Hard, rough hands grab her from behind and Yugito finds herself lifted off the ground, her sword knocked away from her. All her struggling, kicking and sending sharp fingernails and teeth wherever she can make contact with skin is to no avail. Her kunai holster is knocked to the ground as well. The two surviving attackers begin to advance, the woman smiling as she brandishes her wakizashi.

_**Yugito!**_

Yugito stares at her two attackers, trying desperately to determine in their faces whether they will kill her or knock her out and carry her off to wherever. There's nothing to tell her anything but death in their faces.

_**That man is not coming. I do not know if he intends to save his own skin or if he intends to help you, but he will not come in time. You can not hope for him.**_

_Yes, I… I was hoping he'd come._

_**Yugito, please…**_

_Oh, so you've devolved to the level of begging now?_

_**Let me break the seal!**_

There's no way out. There's nothing that can save her because she is bleeding, restrained, and unarmed, and there's no ninjutsu or genjutsu Yugito can cast to solve this.

_**Alright. Do it.**_

Yugito's done playing with these hungry-eyed assailants.

If they want a real fight, they'll get one.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

If the Nibi's thoughts seem a bit… _theatrical_, I decided that a bijuu should maybe be a bit more eloquent (read: dramatic) in their thoughts when killing someone.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

_Peel off the napkin  
O my enemy  
Do I terrify?—_

—_Lady Lazarus _by Sylvia Plath

* * *

Yugito has allowed the Nibi to take control of her body twice in the past. Both of these occasions she remembers all too vividly and without anything resembling pleasure; she has a pink scar from a chakra burn and black one to tell her what the stories were.

The first time, she was three. The black voice in her head was still fresh and new, still a comforting presence to an lonely little girl. The Nibi's voice was full of smiles and she asked, with that crooning, pleading note, if Yugito would let her come on out and play.

Half of the fourteenth district of Kumo was destroyed before the Raikage and Kirabi could subdue her. Yugito never trusted the Nibi again and the bijuu's tone darkened from honey-sweet to demanding and menacing.

The second time, Yugito was nine. She was taking the Chunin exams and the genin she was paired against in the preliminaries was twice her age and size. He sneered as his hand closed around her throat, the light gleaming off his Iwa hitai-ate like a miniature sun.

_**Give me your body, **_the Nibi had said then, _**and I will strike down he who seeks to harm you.**_

The Iwa genin was burnt to a cinder within a quarter of a second. Yugito wore restraining seals, the black marks of punishment, on her flesh for a month afterwards to keep the Nibi from surfacing. Afterwards, her training to control the Nibi and utilize her powers was intensified.

Now is little different. It's survival; nothing more, nothing less. The Nibi allows Yugito passive awareness of what goes on when she takes over her host's body; she even gives the choice of who to go after first. However, the bijuu _doesn't_ let Yugito decide when she should go back to her little haunt in the back of her host's mind; the Nibi either gets tired or Yugito's body starts to cry for release, and that's when the bijuu decides she's had enough and retreats.

_**Who first, human?**_

Through a caul of blue fire Yugito can see her surviving attackers staring at her in horror, mouths agape like gasping fish. The one who had grabbed her from behind has backed away, run around to join his comrades; his rough, scarred face is blanched the color of bleached bone.

_The woman; the one with the wakizashi._

_**Gladly.**_

The woman dies screaming, not burnt to ashes as the Iwa genin was six years ago but still burnt, so badly burnt that her skin gleams black and shines in the dim light.

The men take one look at their companion's corpse and turn tail and run.

_Good._

_They dodge well, for little mice. _Blood rushes in Yugito's ears and her mouth and the mouth of the Nibi's chakra cloak twists in an exultant sneer. As hands and feet hit the forest floor leaves shrivel under the heat of glowing claws. They continue to run. Good; Yugito likes it better this way. They both do.

As she chases down her prey more men and women come fleeing out of the trees, seeing the jinchuuriki cloaked in her bijuu's chakra and desperately seeking escape. _**Run, mice. **_Two are incinerated by a fireball burning so hot that its flames are blue; still more are crushed under the weight of giant paws.

_**Who else is there? **_Yugito's consciousness has all but dropped off to sleep; as it is she is now only vaguely aware of the Nibi's rampage. A few vague, blurred images, the aroma of blood rising in her nostrils and burning flesh settling there too. Nothing more than that. _**Who still lingers?**_

-0-

There is one.

Tsuyoshi flinches at the ache of his broken leg, but does not cry out. He knows that hiding behind this tree is a poor method of concealing himself, but there's nothing better at the moment. He can't walk in his condition, and can only keep silent and pray that that, that… _thing_ won't notice he's there. Beyond that, if one of his comrades lives, they'll hopefully find him and help him.

It was supposed to be a simple mission. It was supposed to be simple. It had all been so cut and dry—capture the Nibi jinchuuriki and bring her back to the base for a neat and tidy profit. Tsuyoshi didn't question why his employer wanted her; he _never_ questioned the motives of his employers. Normally, he wouldn't accept jobs of this scale against such dangerous shinobi, but from what he had been told the jinchuuriki's chakra was sealed. Coupled with the fact that she was a young girl even if she was dangerous Tsuyoshi had been certain he could handle it.

How wrong he had been.

_Damn it, this hurts. _The painkillers he has in his pouch won't make it any easier to walk; Tsuyoshi's stuck until help arrives, and even then, there's little more honor among bounty hunters than thieves. He doesn't expect much out of anyone but Haruka; she always pulls through. _If she's bit it I'm really screwed this time._

Tsuyoshi manages a sick little smile. _God, my wife's gonna kill me when she finds out about this; she told me not to take this job, and look where it's gotten me. _No doubt about it, Ikumi will be beyond furious when she finds out; she might even get out the frying pan again.

_And the kids are gonna be wondering where Daddy got his new scar._

_Well, if he comes back, that is, and since this jinchuuriki apparently _didn't _have her chakra sealed like they said she had and she's gone psycho on us, the chances of me getting out alive are slim to none._

…

_Damn it, I wanna see my kids again._

After a few minutes, all is quiet. Tsuyoshi allows himself a smile not tinged with nausea (well, sort of), when he realizes that he might just get out of this in one piece. _Hello, my darlings, hello, my babies, Daddy's coming home. _

Then, a low, guttural growl comes from behind the tree, and Tsuyoshi's blood freezes in his veins.

Death greets him on the heels of a vicious feline grin and a maelstrom of blue flame.


End file.
